Onto the story!-

(frying pan from God hits authoress)

God: DISCLAIMER!

Authoress: Oh …right …. Damn that hurt….owie…

Disclaimer: I don't own this, I can't get the rights from Oda-san, if I tried it would be the court case of the century (although I think we have enough of those everyday) and I would fail and thus tick off all the One Piece fans out there who read the manga because it would cut into Oda-san's manga drawing time. So yeah, I'm not even going to try that. But IF I did, there would be a lot of scenes that would imply LuccixKaku-ness.

Every time you forget to put a disclaimer …. God throws frying pans at you…..

7 years, July 13

Lucci woke up before the sun rose per usual; the covers were strewn about the bed, mostly kicked off on his left side where Kaku lay snoozing away with hair flattened on one side while the other side remained rather spiky. Lucci's hand ghosted across the sheets and placed it upon Kaku's face, fiddling with a short orange lock just above his ear for just a moment then he let go and strode over to the bathroom. The bathroom itself was rather lifeless; consisting of a large mirror, two orange towels on the opposite towel rack and shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the shower along with a toothbrush and tooth paste on the sink. Pretty lifeless, but it was somewhat comforting to a man who lived on bare necessities.

In the shower Lucci's mind wandered about through the memories of yesterday while lathering his dark hair with shampoo. Aven was a pretty strange kid, she was kind, obedient and silent and he didn't mind that at all but she seemed just a tad out of the ordinary.

He turned off the water, got out of the shower and dried off with one of Kaku's orange towels. He wiped off the steam on the mirror. After towel drying his hair and taking care of other cleanliness necessities he exited the bathroom to find Kaku still asleep; it was 5:30 in the morning anyway. Hattori sat upon the window sill sleeping, chest rising and falling steadily, with his small black tie sliding over his feathery chest.

Lucci walked into the closet which consisted of black, black and white but it was still mostly black. Underwear (no I ain't telling you what his underwear is XD), pants, shirts all the necessities were covered. He looked over to the little rack of ties and decided that today he wasn't going to wear one. A white shirt and black pants and socks were fine today and it wasn't like there was going to be a mission later on anyway. Closing the closet door Lucci looked through the window and saw the sky was turning a light pink or orange and glanced back over at the bed. Kaku lay haphazardly across it, one leg sticking out from under the covers and over the side of the bed and his left arm draped over his face and hooked over his nose. It was comical to say in the least and Lucci smirked a little.

He left Kaku there, it was 5:50 in the morning and he decided to take a walk up the stairs to the kitchen, good ol' morning exercise. The kitchen was located on the fifth floor and took up half of said floor. The other half was taken up by the dinning room and those rooms were about the most decorated of all the rooms in the tower if you didn't consider Kalifa's room, Jyabura's room and the training room. The kitchen definitely wasn't a simple room; it held every technological advancement ever created to make the CP9's life easier when it came to cooking food.

Even with all of the wonderful gadgets Lucci's favorite was the coffee maker for it was a finely tuned machine that he had beaten, knocked off the counter and thrown down the stairs until it started making his coffee just the way he liked it, and it did a damn good job. The only thing it could not do was grind the coffee beans but he took pleasure in doing that piece of labor. It was also a wonderful sound to hear, though it might have been annoying to others, and the exquisite aroma that escaped the machine when he opened the lid was like crack to his senses, sending him on an all time high.

Yeah, coffee was his crack alright.

The only obstacle between him and his coffee, no matter how much he wanted it to blow up, was time and it took 30 minutes and 4 seconds precisely. The sky was a wonderful yellow-orange-pink color by the time the coffee was done. He pulled out a white coffee mug from the cabinet and poured the black-crack-coffee into it, taking it to the windowsill and drinking it peacefully. About three minutes later the ding of the elevator, reaching its, destination rang through the air. The strangest thing about it was that as the door opened a small, white/black/brown thing flew between the doors and across the room to hide under the table. Kalifa exited the elevator a few seconds after the doors had opened completely, her face held signs of worry.

"I didn't realize you were that afraid of elevators kiddo." Kalifa muttered as she walked over to the table to try and console Aven out from under it.

"That thing is evil!" Aven hissed as she clambered out from under the table into Kalifa's safe arms.

"Exactly why is it evil?" Lucci called out to her from across the room. She gave him a look that was somewhere between exasperation and irritation.

"Instead of going to the fourth floor it went up to the sixth floor, stopped, opened, closed its self and started going down again." She stated. Lucci raised an eyebrow to her.

"Maybe Kalifa pressed the wrong button," He offered and went back to drinking his coffee.

"No, she didn't, the level four button was glowing the whole time, and unless there is an invisible monster in that thing-" she pointed accusingly at the elevator, "It stopped halfway through coming back down here and went up again to the sixth floor and opened and closed again."

"Oh it's not an invisible monster on the elevator; it's a ghost that likes to go to the fifth floor because it's the ghost of a woman that died there…" Lucci added creepily, Aven stared wide-eyed at him in fear, she looked back at the accursed elevator and then back at him and pressed herself closer to Kalifa's body. Lucci couldn't help but smirk as he returned to his coffee.

"Stop trying to scare the poor kid Lucci!" Kalifa glared at him as she hugged Aven closer, "Don't believe him, no one has ever died in this building and there are certainly no ghosts in this building!"

"That's what you think….." Lucci muttered to himself just low enough for Kalifa to hear him. Kalifa glared at him for a few more seconds before she and Aven started running about the kitchen looking for something for them to eat. By the time they had settled on cooking eggs and bacon Kaku had entered the room. He muttered a half-hearted morning to everyone and he trudged over to the counter with the coffee maker on it. To anyone that ever knew Kaku they knew he was a morning person ONLY after he got a cup of coffee down in his system. It seems to work that way with adults; it's like a sickness no one can cure, once you get into drinking coffee you never get out of it. Kalifa had shooed Aven off as she cooked the eggs and bacon so Aven went off to the cabinets with Kaku and pulled out a mug for him.

"Aw, thank you Aven" Kaku smiled as he took the mug from her, Aven smiled back and slid off of the counter.

"Want me to make some coffee for you?" She offered. Kaku stood still for a moment, arguing with himself before he nodded and let her take his mug from him. She crawled back onto the counter and rummaged around in the spice cabinet pulling out Irish cream and other such spices. The bacon sizzled in the background as Lucci watched the city around the building start to wake up with the morning paper boy making his rounds. Kaku leaned on the counter, head down, eyes half-opened as Aven made him her recipe of coffee.

"Here you go!" Aven chirped, shoving the coffee into Kaku's face while she sat down on the counter, Kaku mumbled a thank you to her and slid into the nearest chair while holding his precious pick-me-up tightly in one hand. Lucci finished his coffee and headed over to the coffee maker to pour some more but he met the obstacle named Aven. He stopped, she watched him with wide expectant eyes, and he cleared his throat.

"Is there something you want?" Aven smiled at him and held out her right hand.

"Can I make you some coffee?" Lucci stared at her hand for a moment confused by her antics.

"Fine…" He gave her the cup as he mumbled; in return the girl gave a joyous giggle and set about pouring the coffee and ingredients into the mug. Lucci walked over to the table and seated himself next to Kaku and waited patiently for his drink. Kaku watched her for a moment before averting his eyes towards Lucci's direction and placed his coffee on the table.

"She's a really sweet kid Lucci," Kaku stated as he turned to face his co-worker. Lucci glared at him, seeing right through his foreplay.

"We're not adopting her Kaku, and that's final…" Lucci stated coldly, though for the sake of the kid he was keeping his voice low.

"Oh come on, what's keeping us from taking care of a kid?" Kaku shot back, irritated by Lucci's attitude. Lucci gave him a cold glare as if it was obvious.

"Watching over a kid requires a lot of work." Lucci stated.

"And?" Kaku inquired.

"Our 'job' doesn't allow much time to watch a kid," said Lucci.

"She seems like a good kid…" Kaku offered

"Yeah, but I doubt we could leave her by herself for a whole day, she seems like the type to have abandonment issues…" Lucci muttered

"She didn't grow up like you did with your horrible childhood" Kaku retorted, glaring a Lucci.

"My childhood was not horrible and even if she did she never would have survived it," Lucci sounded mildly offended by Kaku's remark.

"Would you put her through that?"

"No, but what's wrong with growing up to be like me?"

"Besides ending up a cold and cynical bastard?" Kaku chided, Lucci smirked with an air of pride. (1) Aven suddenly appeared between them carrying Lucci's mug, she placed it on the table and scooted it closer to Lucci's hand. She then walked off to help Kalifa serve the eggs and bacon between four plates and carry them to the table. Lucci reverted to his ever placid look as he drank the coffee. When he finished with the first gulp he looked down at the cup, staring into its brown contents with emotionless eyes. He placed the cup on the table and got up, Kaku followed him with his eyes and before he left he said,

"She can stay…" Lucci then picked up the coffee cup and walked over to the window again to watch the city below. Kaku gazed after him, confused yet pleased with his answer, he reclined in the chair and sipped at his coffee.

"Breakfast is ready!" Kalifa and Aven called. Aven was balancing two plates with both arms while Kalifa balanced another two on one arm and her coffee in the other.

"Nice Kalifa," Kaku smirked as he reached forward to grab a plate from Aven. Kalifa repositioned her glasses and said;

"That's sexual harassment Kaku." Kaku rolled his eyes and smiled, Aven smiled with him. He looked over his shoulder and motioned for Lucci to come sit with them. The elevator door opened and out stepped the devilishly handsome (Well Lucci would call him a pain in the ass) Jayabura. His goatee and long, whisker like, mustache stood out and accentuated his character. His mischievous grin plastered, like always, on his lips as he looked around the kitchen.

"The food smells good today Kalifa! What are we havin-" He stopped mid sentence when he noticed Aven sitting down next to Kaku with her plate in front of her, "Who's the shrimp?" Aven's face turned a deep crimson when the words were spoken and slipped her hands into her lap.

"Her name is Aven, not shrimp, Jayabura," Kaku stated, rather annoyed by Jayabura's rudeness.

"Oh, well then, where'd she come from?" He casually walked over to the table and slipped into a chair while keeping his eyes locked on the 'shrimp'.

"Lucci and I found her yesterday." Kaku answered flatly. Jayabura glance at him for a second then he turned around in the chair and said:

"What? You picking up strays now Lucci?" Lucci glared at him, Jayabura returned his trademark smile. He then returned his attention back to Kaku and Aven, mostly Aven, "So then, shrimp, where did you come from?"

"Um…. My mother's…tummy?" Aven answered a little confused. Jayabura stared at her for a moment, along with Kaku who looked like he was about to laugh, Kalifa stared helplessly at the girl while Lucci ignored them. Jayabura's bark-like laughter broke the silence, head down and fist hitting the table, and Kaku let out a snort of laughter while Kalifa slapped her hand to her forehead.

"Pfft, hahahaha, shrimp, you sure are one hell of a card." Jayabura said, wiping a tear from his eye, "But, no, seriously. I mean where did you come from, like the streets or an orphanage?"

"Oh… I came from the slave trade center, is that what you were asking for?" Aven said innocently. Jayabura instantly shut up, his face portrayed that of utter shock. He stared at Kaku in disbelief then turned around to Lucci and barked:

"What the hell are you two doing at a place like that? You two have each other right?" He pointed accusingly at Kaku, "Why the hell would you bring in a kid for those things!?" Kaku then proceeded to hit him on the back of the head.

"We're not doing that to her dumbass!" Kaku shouted, Lucci stared at them both, seemingly bored with their little scuffle, "We found her on the streets but all she's ever known is the slave trade place!"

"Oh…" Jayabura stared at the table sheepishly, "I … see." Kaku rolled his eyes and sat back down, looking rather disgruntled. Jayabura stayed silent for a few more moments but that didn't last long.

"Well then shrimp, nice to meet ya, I'm Jayabura!" Jayabura reached over the table for a handshake. Aven looked between him and his hand, obviously not understanding what she needed to do. Jayabura shook his hand a little and Aven took the initiative to reach out her hand slowly and grasp his. Jayabura shook their hands vigorously, effectively shaking Aven's entire body; she was nearly pulled out of her seat and across the table.

She placed her hand on the edge of the table to regain her bearings and sat back in the chair. Kalifa and Jayabura chuckled while Kaku poked her in the side, causing her to cry out in surprise as she was tickled. Lucci watched the scene before him play out as the sun, rising behind him, brightened the kitchen. He turned back to the window and sipped his coffee, watching the world beyond the window.


(1): that entire conversation was in a dream I had between Lucci and Kaku. Yes I know it sounds retarded and unreal but this fic has been bugging me to no end! I just can't write fast enough…. Ne oh well, that part about Lucci being a cold, cynical bastard was funny to me.